fowler bruce judith 1980 puertorico

8/13/2019 Fowler Bruce Judith 1980 PuertoRico

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9 ^M I S S I O N MESSAGES

From t h e F o w l e r s yC r i s a l i d a No. 54 (Urb. Munoz Rive ra )

Guaynabo, Puer to Rico 00657

SO SEND I YOU . . . ( Jn . 20:21) s 9

One Sunday in our church we sang the missionary hymn, SO SEND IYOU. Do you have it in your church hymnals? Before we finished sing-ing I almost jumped out of the seat and shouted, STOP^RpNGl I m glad I didn't, becausesomethere may havebeenblessedand challenged by the song.

But 1wasannoyed and frustratedDo you know the song? Some of It goes like this:

So send I you to labor unrewarded;To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown;To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and suffering;So send I you to toil for Me alone.

So send I you to loneliness and longing;With heart a hungering for the loved and known.

Forsaking honne and kindred, friend and dear one.So send I you to know My love alone.

So send I you to leave your life s ambition;To die to dear desire, self-will resign;To labor long, and love where men revile you;So send I you to lose your life in Mine.

Now, it may be true that sometimes God calls us to suffer. That'?scriptural. And I'm sure a lot of missionaries have experienced thosethings from man's point of view. The Fowler family is no exceptionBut I have a feeling that most missionaries don t feel that way.

We sure don t

The self-pity evoked from those words is completely out of characterwith the security of trusting our faithful God to meet all our needs. Wehave never before felt so loved, so rewarded, so affirmed, so supported,,so honored, so blessed, so prayed-for as we are now And we just wantecevery last one of you to knowthat

Leave mv life s ambition? On the contrary I m finding it hereLeave our friends and loved ones? Through your warm love for each of

us in our family, we have experienced personal affirmation we NEVERdreamed of before our missionary days

Laborunrewardedand unpaid?Notus Amanfromourchurchcalled\us the other day and said that because we were loved and our ministryappreciated, several in the congregation had gotten together secretly andbought us a new car as a love gift. {Wehad only told God of our need foia car.) The next day, I picked up a 1979.Mercuj^jMLQH,wagon Airconditioning,all power,with every extra possible. Talkabout sufferingAout here on the mission field /

Praise God We are King's Kids Oh, how faithful and kind He is to us


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CHRIST IS THE ANSWER

Almost sounds too pat, doesn't it Christ is the Answer I mimicked. But I don't trust evangelism-by-aphorism. The fact that He's the answerdoesn't help much until they can come up with the right question.

That was before I saw hundreds upon hundreds here in the prisons inPuerto Rico who were SCREAMING the right question. God, help meWhat is there to live for? Doesn't anybody care?

Christ is th e answer.

Sounds trite? Like my guys in the prison tlierapy groups would say: Only to those who ain't got the guts to level. Faceit up, Chico, you'rehur t in ' behind tha t mask

Christ has been the answer for guys like Israel Soto. He writes:

I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1953 to drug-addicted parentswho a bandoned me when I was three years old. The janitor of our tenement building found me, took me to the local police who located mygrandmother. At 11 years of age I was a drug-addict, alcoholic, schooldrop-out, and was resorting to robbery to support my heroin habit.Grandmother tried everything she knew to get me on the right path:punishment, psychologists, foster homes. Finally, recognizing that theproblem was spiritual, but not having any relationship with The-One-Who-Is-The-AnswerJesus ChristGrandmother sent me to a spiritist healerto solve my problem. Of course my situation got worse, until, becauseof my continued clashes with the law, a perceptive judge sent me to a rehabilitation program in California. Two and a half years later I returnedto Puerto Rico appar en tl y cur ed of drug-addiction, but obviously stillsuffering from the cause of the addiction: a human-nature unyielded toJesus. I located my father and through his influence and friends startedusing cocaine and other drugs again. It wasn't long before I was back inprison with a 20-year sentence for drugs, ten years for robbery, and tenyears for assault. Kicking my heroin habit cold turkey in jail and facedwith 40 years behind bars, I recognized that the bottom had dropped outof what was left of my life.

One day in the prison, I was wandering around trying to escape thesmelly, crowded dormi tory for a while when one of the hallelujahs(Christians) invited me to a service they were getting together. I went forlack of something else to do. During the preaching of God 's word , I fel tGod's conviction of my sin, responded to the invitation and commited myshameful life to Christ. Right there He washed me clean with the bloodHe shed for me on Calvary. He called me into the full-time minis try ofevangelism and later released me on parole to the Teen Challenge program.Today, my mother has also found the Lord; I have a Christian wife andtwo beauti ful little girls. During every minute of these last five and a halfyears as a new man I have been aware that 'If anyone is in Christ he is anew creature. ' (II Cor. 5:17)


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H E A L E D D I A B E T E S

In our last newsletter, I shared something of the faith and ministry ofMiguel Ferrao, an inmate who ministers to the psychiatric prisoners herein the penitentiary In Puerto Rico.

When I told him that I was going to write to you about him and askedif he had something specific to share with you, he said that he wanted toaffirm to you how faithful God is in answering prayer. Some of his favorite scriptures are:

Truly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that Ido shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do;because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in Myname, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in theSon. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

(Jn. 14:12-14) ...all things for which you pray and ask believe that you havereceived them, and they shall be granted you.

(Mk. 11:24) ...if two of you agree on earth about anything that they mayask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is In heaven.

(Mt. 18:19)

For many years Miguel has been a diabetic. Doctors told him that hewould have to take insulin regularly all his life, which he has done faithfully. Well, until this last March, that is. Since his baptism in the prisonin January, he has been hungering for the Word of God..and BELIEVINGIT. Especially those many verses that refer to Jesus healing every infirmity and disease. Knowing that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, andforever (Heb. 13:8) and claiming the promises in the Word for his healingMiguel began trusting Jesus' sacrifice on the cross to take away our diseases as well as our sins, as it explains in Matthew 8:17. By March, henoticed that the insulin seemed to be doing him more harm than good,so he went to the doctor in the prison for a check-up. The tests for diabetes came back negative God had healed him Dr. Jorge Crespo here atthe prison could not believe the tests so sent Miguel outside the prison toother doctors for further tests. Miguel has been keeping records ofdoctors names, dates, copies of test records and now has medical, scientific proof that God means what he says in Isaiah 53:4, He Himself tookour infirmities and carried our diseases. Go d has blessed Miguel with agift of faith. If you would like to have some of it, he told me to tell you

there is enough to go around. It comes from hearing the Word of Christ(Rom. 10:17). If any of you would like to write to Miguel, you wouldboth (he and you) be blessed by it, as he speaks a little English.

Miguel A. Roman FerraoInstitucion Regional De BayamonBox 307 (Mod, D 1 -C, bajo)Bayamon, Puerto Rico 00619


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\ THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE (Jn. 8:32)

Through some counseling I ve been doing in a local Salvation Armyhome for alcoholics, I ve been blessed with some new brothers in Christ

whose needs are every bit as great and whose conversions are just asdramatic to me as those in my regular ministry, the prisons.

t)ne of them in particular. Bill Hopson, has been teaching meas muchabout discipleship as I have been teaching him. Hewas one of several thatwe baptized in our coffin-baptistry on wheels in our garage one Sundayafternoon a few weeks ago. Shortly thereafter he confessed to me thathe had been running from the law, and that now as a Christian he could

do no less than turn himself in and trust the Lord for the consequences.As we prayed about it together, the scripture that kept coming to my

mind was John 8:32, ...the truth shall make you free.Yes, he affirmed, I ve got to tell the whole truth about this matter,

confess my guilt, and let the Lord do with me whatever Hewills.Armed with that confidence in Jesus justice and a real joy in finally

being set free from the burden he was hiding from, we walked together

Iinto the F.B.I, office. Bill was told to go back home and go to work (he; had quit his job that morning expecting to be put immediately in jail) ands w it for further word from the District Attorney. Probably something

an be worked out, he was told. Anybody who turns himself in becauseif his faith sounds like he s rehabilitated already.

We still don t know the outcome. Please pray for Bill, for he mightnave to spend time in prison even yet. That s O.K., he says, If Godwants to give me a prison ministry instead of another kind. He loves meand I t ru s t Him.


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WE RE COMING YOUR WAY

Next summer (Juneand July) we^lbe in the statesand wouldlike verymuch to see you and share with your church. Because eight weeks isobviously not enough time to share adequately with every congregation withwhom we d like to spend some time, we are planning to respond ttpastors ministry invitations on a first come, first served basis.

Needs:

TransportationAnybody know of a car that would beavailablt

June and July? Or perhaps even a recreational vehicle traileor van) in which our family could live while we travel fronone end of the U.S. to the other.

The right places to ministerChurches, schools, clubs, homegroups, wherever God leads, I m eager to give testimony ^Christ s power to liberate, heal, forgive and transform^

Plane tickets from here to there for our family of six.

are looking forward to seeing you and sharing with you what Goddoing among you.

Greetings at this Christmas time. rejoice in the Birth ofour LordJeand Praise God for giving Jesus that we might have life and have-abundantly. Have a very blessed Christmas because of the Love ofJe

Love,

Bruce Judy Curtis, Christy

Craig and Cathy

fowler bruce judith 1980 puertorico

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